Gender Differences in Economics Seminars
Pascaline Dupas, Amy Handlan, Alicia Sasser Modestino, Muriel Niederle, Mateo Seré, Haoyu Sheng, Justin Wolfers, Seminar Dynamics Collective
American Economic Review · 2026 · Volume 116 · Issue 2
Abstract
We assess whether men and women are treated differently when presenting their economics research. We collected data across thousands of seminars, job market talks, and conference presentations, leveraging human judgment and audio-processing algorithms to measure the number, tone, and type of interruptions. Within a seminar series, women are interrupted more than men. This holds when controlling for characteristics of the presenter, paper, and audience. Interruptions that are negative in tenor or tone or cut off the presenter mid-sentence increase for women presenters. We also find greater engagement of female audience members with female presenters, suggesting a potential role model effect.
Keywords
Role of Economics, Role of Economists, Market for Economists, Neural Networks and Related Topics, Economics of Gender, Non-labor Discrimination, Professional Labor Markets, Occupational Licensing
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